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IGG to audit owners of high-rise buildings
IGG Beti Olive Namisango Kamya. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The loss. It is estimated that Uganda annually loses Shs20 trillion to various forms of corruption such as tax evasion, ghost workers and abuse of government assets.
The ombudsman has confirmed that the Inspectorate of Government intends to use Wakiso District as a case study to ascertain if there is a correlation between abuse of public funds and the mushrooming high-rise buildings during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Ms Beti Kamya said her office is aware that several high-rise buildings sprouted in places such as Najjera, Kira, Nansana, and Kyengera. The ombudsman added that the IGG will sensitise Wakiso District leaders “on corruption and how we [can] fight it.”
She further asked Mr Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the Wakiso District chairperson, to join forces with Ms Justine Mbabazi, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), town clerks, physical planners and engineers to identify “people behind the [high-rise] buildings which were constructed during the lockdown.”
Ms Kamya revealed this during a meeting with Wakiso District officials in Kampala this past week.
The ombudsman used the same event to launch the lifestyle audit campaign. She revealed that her office has selected 200 top civil servants across the country to be subjected to an audit. The goal, she added, will be to ascertain “whether they under-declared their wealth because we have realised that many officers under-declare their wealth and put other property and money accounts in their children, wives and housemaids’ names.”
The ombudsman also implored the Wakiso District officials to make the most of the 2010 WhistleBlowers Protection Act, adding that a whistleblower is entitled to nine percent of the money recovered from corrupt public officials.
“Right now, preparations are going on to have Daily Monitor, which gave us information about Shs9b recovered from the Ministry of Agriculture, and any time we shall be giving them their five percent as whistleblowers,” Ms Kamya revealed.
Mr Bwanika called upon the Inspectorate of Government to induct local government leaders “because sometimes civil servants do things without knowing that they are promoting corruption.”
Mr Alfred Malinga, the newly appointed Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Wakiso District, said the couple of days he has spent in the office are telling.
Mr Malinga revealed that he had “received calls from people asking me if I am in position to manage [issues, which I think] revolve around corruption.”
He also revealed that an “invisible hand” curtails the power of a CAO in Wakiso District.
“If those things continue even during my term of service, I will…request for a transfer and leave Wakiso for the invisible hands,” he said.
Ms Mbabazi said political leaders almost entirely shoulder the burden for the bad outcomes in regard to fighting corruption in Wakiso.
“Some of our accounting officers are being used by some of our political leaders, who ask for money before passing any budget and other government projects,” the Wakiso RDC revealed, adding, “Even RDCs keep on receiving intimidation, mostly from political leaders and other people while monitoring government projects.”
